LONDON, UK (GlobalData), 5 March 2014 - With biomarkers in Parkinson’s disease (PD) representing an unmet need today, there is room in the arena for all players. A recent collaboration between Berg Pharma and the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center (the PI), and the degree of Big Pharma’s involvement in a separate program – the Parkinson’s Progression Markets Initiative (PPMI) – hint at the extent of commercial applications for biomarker discovery, says an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData.

According to Heather Leach, Ph.D., GlobalData's Analyst covering Immunology and Central Nervous System Disorders, diagnostics is a particular area that has been lacking in the PD market. While GlobalData predicts PD prevalence to increase from 2.5 million patients to 3.2 million across the seven major markets (7MM: the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and Japan) between 2012 and 2022, Leach believes that a new diagnostic test could alter these numbers and expand the drug-treatable population through early detection.

The analyst says: “There has been considerable interest in the discovery of novel PD biomarkers from pharmaceutical companies to date, and the collaboration between Berg Pharma and the PI is not the first attempt at this discovery. The Michael J. Fox Foundation sponsored grants for biomarker discovery as early as 2002 and played an integral role in the formation of the PPMI.

“The discovery of a diagnostic test by either the Berg/PI collaboration or the PPMI initiative would serve as a tremendous breakthrough for the PD market, through the identification of prodromal patients, patients with early disease, or individuals at high risk of disease.”

Leach believes that there are many additional implications for biomarkers in PD, which may be useful in a clinical setting or in diagnostics, and which will need to be validated individually for such uses.

She continues: “It is hoped that these biomarkers will serve one of many purposes, either in helping to advance understanding of the disease, allowing stratification of patient populations, determining disease severity, or assessing patient responsiveness to drugs in clinical trials or in clinical practice.

“With plenty of room within the biomarkers field for PD, all current players will have the opportunity to develop and launch products targeted at fulfilling these needs,” the analyst concludes.

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